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Cells and Limits

Causal plans have limits on the number of cells that can be used across your Organisation.

The default limit is 1 million cells. This can be increased to 10 million cells with our "10x cells" add-on.

If you need more than 10 million cells, then please get in touch with our team.

What is a cell?

A cell in Causal is exactly what you'd expect — it's a single number in the spreadsheet.

If you expanded all variables and categories in your spreadsheet, and counted the cells for each scenario, that would give you the cell count for your model.

Causal calculates the cell count of your Organisation by adding together the cell counts of each of your models.

Example 1: P&L

Suppose that you have a P&L model in Causal:

  • Your P&L has 50 line items, represented by 50 variables
  • Your P&L is broken down into 10 departments, represented by a Department category
  • Your P&L is monthly, with 4 years of historical data and 1 year of forecasts (5 years total)

Here's how to calculate the cell count of your P&L:

  • Variables: 50
  • Category items per variable: 10
  • Time steps: 12 x 5 = 60

Total = 50 x 10 x 60 = 30,000 cells

Example 2: Cohort Model

Suppose that you have a SaaS revenue model with monthly cohorts:

  • You have 3 different products, represented by a Product category
  • You have customers in 5 countries, represented by a Country category
  • You're modelling the customer build (new, churn, expansion, contraction, total) and ARR build, represented by 10 variables in total
  • Your model has 5 years of historicals and 5 years of forecasts, with monthly cohorts
  • You have 3 scenarios with different assumptions: base case, upside, downside

Here's how to calculate the cell count of your cohorted revenue model:

  • Variables: 10
  • Category items per variable: 5 x 3 = 15
  • Time steps: 12 x 10 = 120
  • Cohort items per variable: 120
  • Scenarios: 3

Total = 10 x 15 x 120 x 120 x 3 = 6,480,000 cells